Page 4456 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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Madam Speaker, in the legislative context the ACT has a once in a lifetime opportunity to consolidate its public employment legislation. Some 110,000 people are employed in the South Australian public sector. Of these, approximately 75,000 are within the budget dependent sector and approximately 15,000 of these are employed under the Government Employment Management Act 1985. The remainder are employed under other legislation, including, for example, teaching staff under the Education Act and nurses under the relevant health Acts.
Uniform employment legislation has a range of legislative and administrative advantages, provided sufficient account is taken of areas where employment may best be effected through specific legislation. An example which members of this chamber may wish to consider is the employment of staff in government business enterprises where private sector conditions may be most appropriate. Another is the status of officers of the legislature itself, whose primary function of serving the legislature may be compromised by employment under a government employment Act.
Madam Speaker, in the administrative context, South Australia is moving beyond the ideas embodied in the 1985 Act towards a more flexible public sector. For example, where the Government Management Board established under the Act may exercise a determinative role, the trend is increasingly towards an advisory role. The board informs the Government of the courses of action available under the Act, effectively leaving negotiation in the hands of the Government, management and the unions. This has been accompanied by a trend towards greater direct employment responsibility residing with the chief executive officers of government agencies.
The move toward agency bargaining is another factor to be considered. The overall objective was summarised by one officer as "endeavouring to retain the values of probity, objectivity and fairness within the South Australian Public Service but not the traditional compartmentalised responses to public sector management". Careful consideration must be given to those public sector management matters which should be managed centrally. While many management decisions could effectively be devolved to chief executive officers, the South Australian experience suggests that others, such as the development of information technology and the overall staff development and training agendas, should be managed centrally.
Madam Speaker, there should be clear articulation between relevant auditing and financial accounting legislation and any public service management legislation. Finance and audit legislation should be up to date to cope with the expanded role of the chief executive officers and the increasingly complex role of government. While auditing should retain untouched its powers of scrutiny, the modern environment requires that auditors should also be capable of providing constructive advice to the government, to legislators and to administrators.
Also, Madam Speaker, it was made plain to us that legislatures have a major leadership role to play in ensuring the accountability of the public service to the community. The South Australian experience has ably demonstrated that the legislature's role in oversighting the activities of the administration is valuable and that it should be enhanced in a sophisticated and modern fashion.
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